Reset
by WeaponFanfic
Summary: Six months ago, the supercomputer was shut down. Everything should have died with it. Something survived.SPOILERS: This is a fic that bridges episode 97 of the main series with my created universe. Episode 0 of The Reset Arc.
1. Six Months Ago

**Reset**

_SPOILERS: This is a fic that bridges episode 97 with my created universe. Please do not read unless you have seen or read about episode 97 of the series. Episode 0 of The Reset Arc._

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko was created by Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain. It was produced by Antefilms and then by MoonScoop. It is aired in France by France 3 and in America by Cartoon Network. The author is neither employed by or affiliated with any of the above companies or entities. All characters, locales, and other non-original entities are property of the parties mentioned above. All rights reserved.

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Journal Entry for Jeremie Belpois #111007

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Six months have passed since our adventures in the virtual world known as Lyoko ended. Much has changed in our little circle of friends but much has also remained the same.

XANA was defeated by Prof. Franz Hopper, whom we later came to know as Franz Schaeffer. He sacrificed himself to save us and the world from an artificial intelligence program bent on world domination or worse. His actions helped us activate the program that would end up stopping the menace once and for all.

The virtual world of Lyoko is gone. The program I helped to create ate away at the world where we did battle at. All signs of each and every sector have been wiped away for good.

The supercomputer was shut down. Any and all access to that world is now cut off for fear that Lyoko and XANA could come back. While it was a very difficult thing to do, shutting down the computer was ultimately deemed the right thing to do.

William was rescued from XANA's clutches. The influence of the mad AI program is gone now and William is his own man again. Yet, despite all this, I can still sense remnants of XANA's code existing in his mind and body. I can still see him clad in all black wielding a sword that was twice as big as his body and covered in a murky black essence from the handle to the hilt. He never gave up on trying to win Yumi's heart but, luckily for Ulrich, she romantically gave up on him soon after he returned to Earth. They are still friends, however.

Sissi was now part of our little group... at least for a little while. While we didn't mind having her around, she still felt uncomfortable around us after so many years of suspicion and resentment. She gave up on both hanging out with us and giving us grief. Nowadays she's just neutral with our little gang with the exception of Odd, whom she bickers with on a daily basis. She also seems to have given up on Ulrich, though if you ask him, he still fears that one day she will corner him and try to have her way with him.

Odd puts more of his energy on his film and music now that he no longer has to fight digital monsters from another world. He's still torn on what passion he wants to focus on more but, to his benefit, music and film have a way of working well together. He's still a skirt chaser. Dubbed the "Kadic Casanova" by just about everyone in the school, a slow week for him is when he only has one date with one girl a week.

Ulrich barely changed after the incident. He's still a star on the school team and quickly becoming proficient in various martial arts. He's also still not the brightest bulb in the pack. Luckily for him, he's always getting tutoring from Yumi. He still loves her to death but has yet to confess his love to her once and for all. We're always taking bets on the side to determine when it'll happen but I feel that by the time it does, we would forget about the whole thing.

Yumi also refused to change after we shut down the supercomputer six months ago. She still tries to deal with two boys fighting over her heart, though she will never admit that Ulrich is currently winning that bout. She's still a student of the martial arts herself and can easily kick Ulrich's butt unless he really tries to concentrate.

Aelita was the only one of us that changed the most after the shutdown. She has more time to concentrate on her music and duties for the Subdigitals. Her programming skills have become on par with my own and, at times, even surpassing my own. Overall, she's been a better person after Lyoko, though the loss of her father in front of her eyes did hit her hard. She no longer feels that she has to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders by saving Lyoko time after time. While she has become a stronger person, her grief does get to her every so often. Since I've been trying to console her during this time, we seem to have gotten closer than ever before.

Speaking of which, I don't think I've changed much after Lyoko. I'm still fascinated with computers and machinery. I'm still one of the best students in the school thanks to my top marks in almost every class I attend. I'm still madly in love with Aelita. I do feel we've gotten closer together but with her grief still taking hold of her every once in a while, confessing to her how I feel wouldn't exactly be the wisest move to make at this time. She's given me a close friendship out of all this and I'm happy to take that than to lose her forever.

Six months have passed since Lyoko and XANA were gone. While we are grateful for helping to save the world, we all miss those adventures. Even Yumi, who was the first one to vote in favor of shutting down the supercomputer, misses Lyoko since it became her outlet for pent up tension in her life, though she would never admit it. It was truly an exciting time in all of our young lives and something we will never forget.

END TRANSMISSION


	2. A Day in the Life

The country of France was enjoying a beautiful late Saturday morning. The sun was overhead, birds chirped and a gentle breeze blew through the land. The city was alive with activity as every shop and restaurant was filled with customers eager to enjoy the day to its fullest and move the economy through the art of shopping. Those who chose not to shop were milling around the city either on foot or with a bicycle. All in all, a very normal weekend was underway.

In a small two-story house in the middle of the city, a Japanese family was going through their usual weekend routine. The mother, Akiko Ishiyama, was busy tending to a flower vase while the father, Takeo,was busy reading the business section of the daily newspaper. Their son, Hiroki, was sitting on the couch playing with his video game system. Their daughter, Yumi, had just emerged from her room and was heading for the front door.

"I'm going to be out with my friends," she announced as she stopped to fix her hair one last time.

Takeo folded the corner of the news paper to get a better view of his daughter. "Friends or just one friend?" he asked.

"Takeo!" his wife snapped back.

He looked at her with mock surprise. "I just want to know whether or not she's going to be with her boyfriend today," he reasoned.

Yumi sighed angrily. "Dad, Ulrich isn't my boyfriend. We're just going to hang out together and meet up with our other friends later."

"It's a date," Hiroki interjected, his gaze still on the TV screen. "I heard over the phone last night that she was going out with him to the movies."

Yumi gave her brother a glare of death. She figured he might eavesdrop on her phone conversations but she never figured he would tell their parents about them. "Hey, I don't go around telling mom and dad about your attempts to call Milly," she retorted.

Takeo's attention remained fixed on his daughter. "Well, you make sure he doesn't try anything funny with you. I'm already wary of him always coming over here for tutoring. No telling what he might do outside of this house."

"I told you, he's..." Yumi stopped herself. No matter how many times she explained to her parents that she and Ulrich were just friends, she felt she could never convince them that it was the truth. "Fine," she said, defeated. She put on her shoes and got out of the house.

"As for you, Hiroki," Akiko said, "who's Milly?"

Hiroki paused the game and sat on the couch with a dumbfounded look on his face. While he had never actually called Milly on the phone, Yumi did catch him a few times with the phone in his hand staring at it, trying to convince himself to make the call. He had a hard enough time trying to explain his crush on the school reporter to his sister, let alone trying to explain it to his parents. As Takeo folded the other side of the paper to get a good look at his son, Hiroki lay the controller down on the table, turned off the TV and game console and ran to his room.

Jeremie opened his closet and began to rummage through his box of miscellaneous parts. While people have often told him he was a pack rat, he felt that keeping around anything and everything he used in his life was beneficial, especially if he could use spare parts from old projects for new ones. As he dug through the box, he found something that caught his eye. A minute later he pulled out a small robot with a camera eye and wheels for legs. Jeremie remembered this robot very well. This was the robot that caused him to seek out advanced parts at the abandoned factory, which then led him to the discovery of the supercomputer and Lyoko. This was also one of the first robots that XANA had possessed to attack the boy genius. He dusted it off and placed it on a shelf next to Kiwi-2, his successful basketball playing dog that was later cloned by XANA to attack them. He sighed at the sight, memories of his adventures behind the computer terminal now flooding his mind. As he went back to his box of stuff, he heard a knocking at the door. He opened it to find Odd smiling on the other side.

"Hey, Einstein," he said. "Mind if I use your computer? I need to get some beats for my film's soundtrack."

"No problem," Jeremie said as he let his friend in. "You're already done with your movie?"

Odd shook his head. "No way! I only shot one scene but I figure I better find a score for it before I shoot the next scene."

Jeremie rolled his eyes. He had never heard of any filmmaker that worked this way. Then again, he knew better than to argue with an artist about how they worked. He went back to rummaging through his box while his friend hopped on the computer.

"By the way," Odd asked, "where's Aelita?"

"Practicing," he replied. "She wants to improve her mixing skills for the next Subdigitals concert she can perform at.."

Odd turned on the computer monitor and looked over the desktop. He noticed that the boy genius still had the Lyoko activity scanner and alert system still active, even though that virtual world died months ago. While he would have said something negative about Jeremie having those programs around in the open, he understood the nostalgia factor behind them since he also missed the virtual world. After reminiscing for a bit, he opened the web browser and saw a very interesting link. "Take a look at this," he said as he clicked on the link.

The computer aficionado got up and peered over his friend's shoulder. The headline on the site announced that the abandoned car factory that was near Kadic Academy was going to be demolished that day. As they read further, the boys discovered that the old factory was going to be imploded to make way for a new shopping mall to be completed eighteen months later. "End of an era," he said in a low tone. Odd nodded as they left the website and went back to their work.

Bernard was a heavy-set man that worked in the construction business. While his job was to create buildings, he also specialized in building demolitions, specifically explosives. He had taken down many buildings before and judging by the construction of the factory, this was going to be a tough job indeed. As he finished planting the dynamite charges on the support beams of the building, he took the freight elevator down to the basement to inspect it and see where he would need to place the next set of charges. The elevator stopped on the second basement floor. When it opened, Bernard saw something unexpected. The room that he encountered looked much cleaner than the rest of the building, as if it was used only a few months ago as opposed to a few years. One side of the room was lined with cables while all of the walls had a green metallic sheen to them. In the middle of the room was a computer that extended to the ceiling. The control panel, complete with several monitors, was placed on one side while a large switch was placed on the other. Surrounding the device was a track for the operator's chair. Bernard reached for his personal two-way radio and called for his supervisor.

"Hey, Boss," he said, "I found this weird looking computer here. Real fancy stuff. Looks brand new. What do you want me to do with it?"

There was a small chirp before his boss responded. "Try turning it on and see if it works. We might be able to sell it off for scrap or something."

Bernard did as he was told. He flipped the switch up and heard the roar of the fans as the machine came to life. A few moments later, the monitors turned on. Bernard went to see them and found something strange. Instead of a layout for the factory machinery or blueprints on automobiles that could be sent to the robots, the monitors showed several lines of code as well as a diagram of what looked like several cigarette towers sticking up from the ground. He called up his supervisor again.

"It works but it's showing something weird here. Didn't you say that this place used to be a car factory?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was," he answered. "You know what? Let's blow it up anyway. If there was something important in that thing, someone would have taken it with them already."

Bernard put his radio away and began to make preparations for the upcoming building demolition. As the conversation was taking place, a tiny spark jumped from the power switch to a nearby exposed wire. The wire, though seemingly dead for quite some time, came to life. It began writhing around wildly until it built up enough inertia to strike at Bernard with just enough electricity to knock him out before the wire lay lifeless again.

Bernard became conscious again a few moments later. While the rest of his body looked fine, his eyes told a different story. They were glazed over and pure white with the exception of the pupil, which now had a distinct branding on them that had not been seen for at least six months. The now possessed construction worker sat in front of the control panel and began typing away at a rapid pace. Despite not using the computer much in his daily life, Bernard was now able to navigate whole directories and command prompts on a computer completely alien to him. After hitting the Enter key, Bernard slouched down on the chair and closed his eyes. A white sphere of light began to emerge from the factory, completely engulfing the building before consuming the entire globe.


	3. The Same Day in the Life

The country of France was enjoying a beautiful late Saturday morning. The sun was overhead, birds chirped and a gentle breeze blew through the land. The city was alive with activity as every shop and restaurant was filled with customers eager to enjoy the day to its fullest and move the economy through the art of shopping. Those who chose not to shop were milling around the city either on foot or with a bicycle. All in all, a very normal weekend was underway.

In a small two-story house in the middle of the city, a Japanese family was going through their usual weekend routine. The mother, Akiko Ishiyama, was busy tending to a flower vase while the father, Takeo,was busy reading the business section of the daily newspaper. Their son, Hiroki, was sitting on the couch playing with his video game system. Yumi was about to turn her door knob when she stopped mid-turn. She felt something strange, as if she had all done this just a few moments ago. The feeling of deja vu was unmistakable but she didn't know why it was occurring. She decided to ignore it and emerged from her room.

"I'm going to be out with my friends," she announced as she stopped to fix her hair one last time.

Takeo folded the corner of the news paper to get a better view of his daughter. "Friends or just one friend?" he asked.

"Takeo!" his wife snapped back.

He looked at her with mock surprise. "I just want to know whether or not she's going to be with her boyfriend today," he reasoned.

Yumi knew it. She did just have this very same conversation a few moments ago. This feeling of deja vu came from having a 'return to the past' just happen. While that would explain everything, it was still impossible. The supercomputer and everything associated with it was shut down six months ago. No one else new about it's existence and even if they did, the command to execute a 'return to the past' doesn't just consist of a simple click of the mouse. Yumi needed to contact her friends and quick. The first order of business, however, was to get out of the house. To do that, she would have to end the conversation quickly.

"Ulrich and I are just going to the movies," she answered.

Takeo glared at his daughter. "It better be a good movie. In a dark theater like that, I don't trust that boy not to try something funny."

"Honestly, Takeo," his wife responded. "I think Ulrich would behave like a gentleman in such a public place."

Takeo frowned. "When I was his age, I would always try to take a girl to the movies so I could make out with them."

Akiko folded her arms. "Oh really?" she asked. "And just who did you do this with?"

"Well, I... um..." he fumbled as he went back to his paper. Yumi saw this as her chance to escape the house without further interrogation. As she closed the door behind her, she puled out her phone and used her speed dial function to call up one of her friends.

Ulrich stood in front of the theater looking at the selection of movies offered. While there were plenty of movies to choose from, it still wasn't easy to pick the right one. If he and Yumi were actually dating, then the easy choice would be a romantic movie. However, since they were just good friends, that same romantic movie would not only be a bad idea, it would also send her the wrong message. While he did want to get together with her, he didn't want to push the issue or lose her as a friend. As he scanned the rest of the movie selection, he received a phone call.

"Hey, Yumi," he answered.

"Ulrich, where are you?" she asked.

"I'm at the movie theater," he said. "I haven't bought the tickets yet."

"Did you ever notice anything strange happen to you today?"

Ulrich thought about that for a bit. Ever since the day started, all he could think about was what kind of movie he should recommend they go see. While he did think that he was doing this for quite a long time, he didn't feel that it was unusual. "I didn't notice anything," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

Yumi sighed. "I just have this bad feeling of deja vu, like I talked to my parents twice about the same thing already. It just felt weird." There was a brief moment of silence before she spoke again. "Listen, meet me in Jeremie's room. Hopefully he'll have some answers for us."

Ulrich ended the call and looked up at the box office of the theater one last time. While he had a feeling that he wouldn't end up seeing a movie that day, he was glad he didn't have to pick one out this time around. He put the phone back in his pocket and headed back to campus.

Jeremie opened his closet and began to rummage through his box of miscellaneous parts. While people have often told him he was a pack rat, he felt that keeping around anything and everything he used in his life was beneficial, especially if he could use spare parts from old projects for new ones. As he dug through the box, he found something that caught his eye. A minute later he pulled out a small robot with a camera eye and wheels for legs. Jeremie remembered this robot very well. Earlier ago, he had taken this robot out of the box and placed it on the shelf near his Kiwi-2 robot. He looked at the shelf and noticed that the basketball playing robot stood on the shelf alone. As he began to wonder what had just happened, he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and found Odd on the other side.

"Let me guess," Jeremie began. "You want to use my computer to find some musical beats for your film. You only did one scene but you want to find the music for that scene anyway."

Odd's jaw dropped as he raised his arm and pointed at his friend. "So I did talk to you earlier. You don't think that..."

"Someone initiated a 'return to the past?'" he finished the sentence. "Possible, but I doubt that anyone from the construction company would suddenly turn on the supercomputer and know the command to initiate a return."

Odd thought about it for a bit. "Wait, if we just did a return, then shouldn't the factory still be scheduled for demolition?"

Jeremie snapped his fingers. "Good call on that one." He turned on his monitor and quickly opened up his web browser to find the article about the demolition of the factory that was going to happen late that day. To his surprise, he found that the article had changed. Instead of announcing that the factory was going to be destroyed, the website announced that the destruction of the facility was postponed due to lack of funding from the investors for the new mall. Now he knew for certain that something was amiss.

"Odd, call up Yumi and Ulrich and tell them to head for the factory," Jeremie said as he reached for his own phone and tried to contact Aelita. After reaching her voice mail box, he closed his phone and headed for the door. "I'll grab Aelita and meet you guys there. Whatever you do, don't go inside the factory until we're all there. Who knows if the online report is wrong and whether or not they still plan on destroying the factory." While Odd started to dial some numbers, Jeremie left his room.

Aelita set up her two turntables in her room. Standing next to her collection of record crates, she put on a pair of sound-proof headphones and began to mix. Her first official public performance with the Subdigitals turned out nicely and she started to get some nice reviews for her performance that night. While she did do some other concerts after that one, they were at smaller venues, which helped with her fight against stage fright. She noticed that she improved over time with her DJ skills and figured that constant practice on the wheels of steel would help her continue to wow audiences every time she performed. Aelita would normally practice in the gymnasium since the acoustics there matched up with a small concert hall size nicely. Since it was being used for basketball practice, however, her dorm room would have to do.

Jeremie knocked on the door to Aelita's dorm room. He knocked again after receiving no answer the first time. When there was no response again, he tried turning the knob and was surprised to learn that the door was unlocked. He pushed the door slowly, calling out Aelita's name in case he was going to enter her room at the wrong time. As the door opened, he noticed that she was practicing her mixing and had on the headphones he bought for her a few months back. Jeremie approached her and slowly pulled away one of the headphone cups so as not to startle her.

Aelita noticed the absence of sound from one ear and turned to find him next to her. "Sorry, Jeremie, I didn't notice you come in," she said.

"It's OK," he said, "but we need you at the factory. Something weird is going on."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Like that deja vu feeling you get when you experience a 'return to the past.'" Aelita had a stunned and confused look on her face. "Come on," he said, "I'll explain on the way there."


	4. The Old Stomping Grounds

Aelita and Jeremie arrived at the factory, joining Odd, Ulrich and Yumi who were there ten minutes before. They stopped and looked at the abandoned automobile factory, the place where their adventures first began. Those years all changed the group for the better. They rescued someone from the digital world, helped her remember her past and saved the world. More importantly for them, this was where they first formed their friendships and strengthened them over time.

"Boy, I never thought I'd be back here again," Ulrich said. He and Odd missed the feeling that came after a Lyoko battle. The feeling of triumph and of being a hero to the world knowing that evil had once again been thwarted.

"I still wish I wasn't,"Yumi added. Unlike the other two, she missed nothing from those days gone by... or at least never admit to it. While she was satisfied knowing that those adventures helped to save the world, she just wanted a normal, already complicated teenage life.

Jeremie adjusted his glasses. "The first report Odd & I read about said that the factory was going to be imploded. Let's split up and check out the whole factory for explosives."

Ulrich and Odd checked the upper floors, Jeremie checked the ground floor and Yumi and Aelita checked the lower floors. The results were all the same: nothing. No unusual boxes found on the ground. No unusual devices planted on any support beams. The factory was in the same state as they left it six months ago. They regrouped on the ground floor.

"We got nothing, Jeremie," Ulrich said.

"Same here," Aelita added.

Jeremie let out a deep sigh. "Same news on my end." He turned to the open freight elevator. "One more place to check, then." The group entered the elevator and hit the switch, wondering if the supercomputer was still inactive.

The freight elevator made the descent and stopped at the designated floor. As the metal doors unlocked and parted open, the gang's mouths collectively dropped. The main computer terminal, the very same one that was shut down six months ago, was now brimming with life. The center hologram was alive once more, displaying the Lyoko world map in as much detail as possible. All of the monitors were active, displaying all of the necessary statistics and charts Jeremie needed whenever he was monitoring XANA. Even the chair was turned on, still able to travel around the track circling the terminal. It was as if the supercomputer was never turned off in the first place.

Jeremie sat in his chair and placed his hand over his mouth. "Why is this happening?" he asked himself out loud. "I mean, you all saw me shut down the supercomputer, right?"

Aelita placed her hand on his shoulder. "We did, Jeremie," she said. "Somehow, it's back online."

Yumi placed her fingers to her head and rubbed her temples. "Tell me this is a dream," she repeated over and over, hoping to convince herself that it was really a dream that the supercomputer came back to life or that someone had played a really bad prank on them. As soon as a beeping alert sound came from the monitor, she sighed and realized that this was no dream.

"What's happening?" Ulrich asked as he and the rest of the group ran to view the monitors.

Jeremie tapped on a few keys and brought up the tower scanning program. The scanning cursor darted from sector to sector until it found a glowing red tower in the ice sector. "Looks like XANA wasted no time in going back to his old tricks," he said. "You guys know what to do."

"Um," Odd said as he raised his hand, "I know I'm not usually the one who gets concerned about stuff like this, but do you think the scanners will, you know, give us back our powers?"

Jeremie pulled out a flash drive from the his back pocket. "I made a backup when I did your costume upgrades. Good thing I never deleted it."

"Good!" Yumi exclaimed. "Last thing I need now is to go back to wearing that awful geisha outfit."

The group took the elevator down to the scanner room while Jeremie clicked away at the terminal and uploaded all of the information from his flash drive. Despite not touching the contraption for the last six months, he knew exactly what commands to execute to get the scanning process working. As he toiled away, the rest of the team took their positions inside the scanners. The blast of wind and the bright white light were all familiar to them as the process had begun. Before any of them realized it, they were instantly transported from the abandoned factory to the frozen landscape of the virtual world of Lyoko.

Ulrich unsheathed both of his swords and twirled them around before putting them back in their scabbards. "I miss this feeling," he noted.

Yumi grabbed her fans and spun them on her index fingers. "I hate to admit it," she said, "but it does feel good to brandish these again."

Odd took aim with his laser arrows after moving his paws around. "These feel great! Thanks, Jeremie."

Aelita opened her palm and let out the glow of a pink energy ball before closing her hand to snuff it out. "Tower should be up ahead," she said to everyone else. "Let's go."

The group moved forward, the tower visible in the horizon. They were a good distance from the tower and while they could tell it had been occupied by XANA thanks to the red glow that surrounded the upper half, no other enemies could be seen.

"Hey, Jeremie," Ulrich called out. "Did you happen to have a backup of the vehicles?"

"Yeah, but they're back at the dorm," he answered. "I think the ones here in the supercomputer could be corrupted. Why?"

"Just wondering," he said. "I haven't ridden on my bike in so long that I miss the feeling."

As the group neared the tower, Aelita noticed that the red glow on the tower began to fade away and change into a green glow. She alerted everyone to stop running as she contacted Jeremie. "Are you seeing this?" she asked.

Jeremie brought the computer focus to the tower map and had seen the red tower change to green. "I see it, too," he said. "I wonder if... wait," he stopped himself as he noticed that the tower turned red again. "Looks like the tower is back under XANA's control," he noted.

"We see it, Jeremie," Yumi relayed. "The tower is red... no, wait." She stopped herself as she noticed the tower change back to green. Moments later, it began to alternate between green and red colors. "What is going on?" she asked.

Jeremie looked at the map and noticed that the tower was pulsating. It wasn't a constant pattern, however. The tower alternated from quick flashes to long, extended pulses. He squinted and leaned in closer to the monitor. "Is that... Morse Code?" he asked himself. He found an online guide to the language and began to compare the code used there to the flashing patterns he was seeing on screen. Suddenly, the flashing seemed to make sense as he began writing down the possible message that was being transmitted though the glow of the tower. "Guys," he called out, "I think the flashing is a message from XANA to us."

"So what's it say?" she asked.

Moments later, Jeremie had an answer. "It looks like it's repeating itself again but the message seems to be 'I live again. Prepare.'"

The Lyoko gang looked at each other in confusion. They all guessed that XANA was alive but what does he mean by 'prepare'? What was he going to unleash this time around? The answer suddenly came when a laser shot passed by the head of Ulrich. All of them turned to see a large group of bloks and kankrelats marching towards them from the direction of the tower, each of them charging up their shots. Seeing the number of foes coming their way, the group split up and hid behind the nearest ice walls they could find. Odd and Yumi hid behind one ice wall while Ulrich and Aelita hid behind the wall opposite to them.

Odd turned to Ulrich. "You know," he said, "a grenade would be nice right around now."

"Unless Aelita can lob her energy balls over there, I don't think Jeremie ever programmed that kind of weaponry." He turned to Aelita for confirmation.

She shook her head. "Sorry, they only fly straight."

Ulrich looked at the pack of enemies before them. "Then we do this the old fashioned way." He initiated his triplicate move and ran towards the enemy, deflecting a few shots while slicing at whomever got in the way. Odd took the high ground and began sniping off any enemy in his sights. Yumi darted between frozen piles of ice, throwing her fans to both deflect shots and strike enemies from behind while Aelita stayed in hiding, taking shots every now and then to help reduce the enemy population. While the kankrelats and bloks were numerous, it only took a few moments before they were all wiped out.

Odd jumped down from his perch and met up with Ulrich, giving him a fist bump. "Just like old times," he said.

Ulrich grinned as the rest of the group met up with him. "You said it." He sheathed both of his swords. "So, shall we head to the tower?" he asked. Suddenly, a loud, sharp hissing sound was heard beyond the tower.


	5. When Scorpions Attack

"What was that?" Yumi asked. At that moment, a new creature appeared from behind the tower. It looked like a larger version of a creeper but was more grotesque. It lacked skin and had an external ribcage that expanded and contracted as the creature breathed. It had four arms, two of which had two fingers each. It's tail had a sharp spike at the end while the head had a beak that was equally as sharp. Though it wasn't taller than a tower, it was half as tall, larger than most other creatures the group had faced before. "Man, that thing is ugly!" she exclaimed.

"Jeremie, you have any info on this thing?" Ulrich asked.

The computer operator tapped on a few keys and opened some scanning programs to find an answer. "It's called a scorpion," he answered. "And so far it has no detected weak spot."

Ulrich unsheathed his swords again. "Great," he sighed. "Well, team, it's time to find a weak spot." The group split up, hoping to distract the monster and simultaneously find a weakness in the monster.

Odd attacked first, shooting the monster on the left side with his laser arrows. To his dismay, the shots seemed to have no effect. "Alright, just like a creeper," he said sarcastically. "I guess I can't harm this thing."

Yumi attacked on the right side, throwing one fan directly to the creatures side while throwing her other one so that it would come around to sweep the legs. The first fan did no damage. The second fan hit the legs and while it did cut the muscle, the creature seemed unaffected by it. "Jeremie, tell me that hit at least took away one hit point," she called out just before one of the legs kicked her to the side.

"Sorry, Yumi," he answered. "I'm not detecting any damage."

Ulrich approached the scorpion from the front. As the creature fired laser blasts from it's fingers and beak, the young warrior deflected each shot back at the monster but to no avail. As he reached the ribcage, he stabbed the creature with his sword, hoping that blow would take it down. The creature hissed and swiped away at Ulrich, knocking him down several feet away before taking the sword away from it's body and throwing it away.

Aelita charged up an energy ball and shot it at the back of the creature. Though the scorpion did not flinch, it did slam its tail on the ground near Aelita, causing her to lose her balance. The enemy then turned around and pinned her to a nearby ice wall with its arm. It then took a large swipe with its tail, knocking down Ulrich and Yumi again while successfully knocking down Odd for the first time. The scorpion took the opportunity to grab the daughter of Waldo Franz Schaeffer by the neck and lift her in the air. It then took a few steps before hurling her off the edge of the land and into the digital sea, hissing in triumph as this was done.

Odd and Yumi were the first ones to recover. Odd aimed directly for Aelita, hoping that a well placed shot with a laser arrow would take away enough of her hit points to send her back to Earth. As he lined up for the perfect shot, he fired only to be greeted with the clicking sound of an empty gun. "Crap!" he exclaimed. A reload from Jeremie would take too long for him to try and save her.

Yumi pulled out her fan and threw it, hoping to do the same thing that Odd was trying to attempt. The edge of the fan barely nicked her pink hair as Aelita was falling too fast for the weapon to reach her in time and the return flight would not be of any use either.

"Aelita!" Ulrich shouted out. Not only was he knocked so far back that he could barely see her, he was also enough of a poor shot that throwing his katana at he would prove futile. All he and his friends could do is watch in horror as their friend descended into the digital sea.

Aelita saw the bladed fan pass by her face as she fell. The digital sky of Lyoko drifted farther and farther away as she continued her fall to her eventual demise. Knowing that this was going to be the end of her life as she knew it, she closed her eyes, looking for one last moment of peace before she would be part of the digital ether.

Suddenly, Aelita felt herself stop. No splash of water. No crash on the calm of the digital sea. She had fallen into it once before and knew she was not buoyant on the surface of the imitation liquid. When she fell before, she was saved by a white sphere of light that was her father. She couldn't believe that it would happen twice, though. Curious to know what had happened, Aelita opened her eyes and looked behind her. To her surprise, there was a white sphere of light that had kept her afloat. Once again, her father came to her rescue. The sphere of light rose from the sea, taking his daughter with her. He dropped her off on land before charging the scorpion. Upon impact, the monster tipped but quickly regained its balance.

Ulrich couldn't believe his eyes. Not only was Waldo Franz Schaeffer alive, he was helping to fight XANA's newest monster. "Looks like he's preparing another charge," he said to himself. He turned his attention to Yumi and Odd. "Guys, attack the scorpion. We need to distract it while Schaeffer prepares another attack."

"I just reloaded you guys with some fresh weaponry," Jeremie chimed in. "You should be good to go."

"Nice!" Odd exclaimed as he started taking shots at the scorpion. The scorpion turned its attention to Odd and started to swipe at him.

"My turn," Yumi said as she alternated throws, creating a near continuous barrage of fan blade attacks. The scorpion, still occupied with Odd took weaker swipes against her.

With the monster occupied by two different attacks, Schaeffer saw his opportunity. He charged once more at the scorpion. This time around, he charged with more force, causing the scorpion to flip over, exposing its underbelly.

Ulrich saw the opportunity presented before him. He leaped into the air and landed sword-first on top of the scorpion, puncturing its underside. The monster screamed in pain as it felt the cold sharp steel being plunged deep into its body. Ulrich began running on top of the enemy, dragging the sword with him to cut the monster lengthwise, creating a large gash on the body. This turned out to be the killing blow as the scorpion stopped screaming and moving its body. Ulrich jumped off the corpse and watched as the body broke apart, the digital bits floating away before disappearing.

Aelita stood as the ball of light came closer to her. She smiled, knowing that her father did not lose his life six months ago. "Daddy," she said softly as she placed her hand on what she imagined would be his cheek. Schaeffer's glow became brighter for a second before he backed away and began to retreat to the digital sea. As he did, Aelita peered over the edge of the land. "Thank you," she said as she watched him go back into hiding.

"Hey, Aelita," Yumi called out, breaking her friend away from her trance. "Let's shut down this thing before XANA decides to send over any more surprises."

Aelita stood up and nodded to her friends. Wiping a tear of happiness from her face, she ran into the tower and on to the central platform. She closed her eyes and floated to the upper floor where she placed her hand on the terminal to gain tower access. The terminal recognized her at once and called for her password. Aelita typed out the only password she ever knew to the world: Lyoko. With the tower deactivated, Jeremie sent all of the Lyoko warriors home.


	6. Back in Action

The elevator door opened, bringing all four Lyoko warriors back to the control room. "Hey, Jeremie, did XANA end up using that tower for anything?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremie turned his chair to face everyone. "Nope," he answered. "It was as if he just used the tower to lure us out and announce his return."

"So, now what?" Yumi asked.

"Well," Jeremie said, "now that we know that XANA is alive again and that he's starting to rebuild both his strength and his army..."

"And that my father is still alive," Aelita added.

"We really only have one choice," Jeremie continued. "We pick up where we left off six months ago. The question is, who's in?"

Ulrich raised his hand. "Count me in," he said.

"Me too," Odd added. "Being the hero is too much fun."

"Same here," Aelita said as she also raised her hand. "I promised myself that if I had a second chance, I would do everything to rescue my father from Lyoko. I'm not going to let this opportunity pass."

The group all turned to Yumi who had her arms folded over her chest and a look of concern over her face. "What, you think that after all we went through I'm going to bail out on you guys now? I'm in."

Jeremie smiled. "Then it's settled." He stretched in his chair before getting up. "We should head back home. I've got some programming to do. Care to help, Aelita?"

"I'd love to," she answered. With that, the gang headed for the freight elevator, ready for the battles that were to come.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

_Story #6 is done. Some important information in the notes this time around so let's get to it._

_-Spoiler Alert: For those that do not remember the episode (or will wait for the English airing in late whenever Cartoon Network decides to air it), here were the bits that ended up affecting my universe as it was written so far:_

_XANA is dead._

_Franz Hopper (or Waldo Franz Schaeffer) is dead._

_William is no longer possessed._

_Sissi is now part of the gang._

_The supercomputer is shut down._

_All of those things affected the universe that was going through my head as I thought about starting up a fanfic series. Since I didn't want too many conflicts with the series, if any at all, I had to go about making some changes to my universe._

_-Series End: For a fanfic writer, the ending of a series presents both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that all possible story scenarios have been written out and made official. This includes character traits, personalities, and paths in life. The disadvantage, aside from there being no more adventures, is that if the writer has begun their universe before the show ends, they run the risk of conflicting the series, especially if the last episode does a nice little close on the series. So the conflicts listed above absolutely conflict with events that happen in my fics "Wits" and "An Odd Couple." This story was meant to be the bridge that explains why I have things the way they are in my fics while still respecting the official episodes of the creators._

_-The Universe: So, yes, this fic officially gives me a specific universe with which my fics will now take place. For lack of a better name, I'll call the series The Reset Arc. With the exception of some oneshot fics, everything I'll be writing from now on will be connected one way or another. Now I just have to figure out the chronological order of the fics. All I know for sure is that "Reset" is Episode 0, "Wits" will happen sometime before the episode count goes to double digits and "An Odd Couple" will be a much later episode. I want to play around with the characters' relationships a bit more before I go sealing deals here. _

_-Episode 0: Why start with zero instead of one? Nowadays, an episode 0 means that it is a prologue to the events that will happen in the future. "Reset" acts like a prologue so it makes more sense to call it episode 0._

_-References: Aside from references to the series itself, I only placed one reference here. If you check out Jeremie's journal entry number, it's the date for the French airing of the final episode. However, as the stories start coming in, you'll probably notice them reference events from this one._

_-Scorpion: This is a monster from the Nintendo DS version of the game. For the purposes of this story, I made it seem more menacing than it really is in the game._

_And that's the end of that. Special thanks to the creators of Code Lyoko for a series that started off as aimless but then developed into a series with deep story arcs and good characters. Yes, there are rumors of a season 5 happening, but until we get official confirmation on it complete with a preview, consider the series over and done with. By now, you should know the drill. Flames aren't cool but praise and criticism always is._

_Enjoy the start of my fanfic series. Hopefully I can continue it for quite some time._


End file.
